Star Wars: The Old Republic: A Young Exar Kun
by Darth Saevus
Summary: A short-story about the fallen Jedi turned Dark Lord of the Sith Exar Kun. 4023 BBY - Exar Kun is born Timeline of the short-story; 4011 BBY- when the story happens; Characters: Young Exar Kun, Vodo Siosk-Baas, Odan-Urr, Kwaldon Skywalker/Darktaker, Lord Vitiate mentioned indirectly


**_Star Wars: The Old Republic_**

 ** _A Young Exar Kun_**

Exar Kun had been a very powerful Dark Lord of the Sith. And the most dangerous of all.

But even he has been once of the light. Yes... Exar Kun had been once a servant of the Old Republic.

Not much it is known about Exar Kun's past. Most of his life remained shrouded in mystery: perhaps due to Jedi schemes to erradicate a shame that was brought on their shoulders by unpredicted circumstances. Secrets regarding Exar Kun's private life have never been discovered. If anyone knew what the Dark Lord had been once: it was none other than his late Jedi Master. Vodo Siosk-Baas.

Kun had been his most gifted student despite he had been training Jedi for six hundreds of years. No one had ever demonstrated the same potential Kun possessed. But, this story shall not be about how Vodo had trained him, but in fact how their paths crossed.

During the days of the Old Republic, when war was a constant: Master Vodo and a handful of Jedi Masters were commissioned, by the Grand Jedi Master Odan-Urr, in suppressing the Dark Legion's attacks against Coruscant. The Dark Legion was a 'fresh' group of dark side followers who were led by Darktaker: a distant ancestor of Anakin's mother named Kwaldon Skywalker.

Darktaker corrupted many Force-sensitives, with his mental powers, as he traveled across the galaxy, amassing huge armies of adepts to take over Coruscant.

The Republic forces were overwhelmed by the Dark Legion's dark side Force mastery: Darktaker standing atop the pyramid.

Jedi made their way through the amidst of the battlefield decimating numerous Dark Legion followers.

As a Battle Meditation user, a technique he had learned from their Grand Master, Vodo bolstered the strength of his Jedi fellow striking fear into Kwaldon's adepts, drastically damaging their combat skills.

This Skywalker, however, was very powerful in the Force and managed to resist Vodo's Battle Meditation's effects. Though the Dark Legion was defeated through the use of Force harmony, Darktaker stood on his feet and his vanity, unfazed by what transpired. The rogue Darktaker engaged Vodo and his fellow in a lightsabre duel. The outcome was not without its losses. Master Vodo's fellow died by Skywalker's blade and wicked powers. Darktaker was a prodigy in using the dark side of the Force. Some compared him in power with Freedon Nadd: a fallen Jedi turned infamous ancient Sith magician who has ruled Onderon with an iron fist.

The duel, that had taken place on Coruscant, ravaged entire buildings in their path: large numbers of citizens were engulfed in Darktaker's bolts of lightning and entirely disintegrated.

With enough strength in the Force, Master Vodo managed to best him and severed his ties with the Force as punishment for his wicked ways. What has happened to Darktaker, not a concern for him; but their duel gave Master Vodo the chance to find a homeless child.

In the ensuing of the battle, Vodo found a young child named Exar Kun.

The child overwhelmed him with the power he possessed.

During that time frame of galactic history, Coruscant had suferred a planetary devastation due to Darktaker and his Dark Legion adepts. It needed some time before the Republic regained their position in galaxy. Costs were high, but the people was what it mattered the most.

The Krevaaki master recognized the immense strength that was irradiating within the boy and he decided to take him and train him in the ways of the Force.

Before becoming a menace of the Sith, Vodo had notes in his lost journal about Exar Kun. He noted that the young Kun was forced to play with the minds of other people to steal something in order to survive. Vodo noted he could instinctively erase men's memory or place them 'false' thoughts. In his notes, Vodo wrote that Kun did this to a group of trained Jedi Knights in order to steal valuables and sell them on the black market. Kun had once caused a blackout and an earth quake in a medical center because no doctor wanted to treat him of a toothache.

In Vodo's journal, the master noted that Kun was a victim of the streets and had to beg money for a living. Most, if not all of Exar Kun's childhood had been miserable, full of suffering. He never had the chance to know his parents, they abandoned him when he was helpless.

Kun was known in the journal for Force-screaming, so loud, that he caused a seismic activity shaking the pylons themselves of a building when he was to be taken as a slave, causing a small ceiling collapse.

Planet Ossus was beautiful; some might say, the very embodiment of the light side, just as Korriban was the physical embodiment of the dark side. The light side ran strong her. The world was teeming with life.

Exar Kun felt like the light side presence of this planet was cleansing him of the 'taint' which he gained during his previous actions.

Vodo showed Kun plenty of exotic animals and insects; he showed him beautiful mountains and plains. Such wonders he had never seen since his life. Vodo showed Kun how to communicate with animals and find out valuable information if they had any. Vodo showed him how to bind his own consciousness with the planet itself and 'feel' its mountains fragmenting while the rocks were rolling over or the wind blowing over the forests and over Ossus.

The Jedi Master displayed his use of telekinesis. Vodo, much as Yoda, was known for his Force potency. Vodo easily Force-lifted a one hundred meters high shuttle up fourteen meters in the air and then placed it down with barely an effort.

Exar Kun was impressed with Vodo's demonstration in the Force and bowed before him telling the Jedi Master he wanted to know more about these 'Jedi techniques'.

Kun and Master Vodo returned to the ship and 'finally' had the pilot to set course to the Ossus City...

The space shuttle arrived in the metropolis.

Vodo offered himself to show Kun the surroundings of the Ossus city; pretty much he had been asking for this.

Master Vodo showed Kun the negative and the positive aspects of this world. He explained to him there's no such thing as perfect place; and forces of the universe have their own reason why they allow some things to happen.

As Vodo and Kun walked the streets, they have seen a wounded human sourrounded by a gang; but they posed no threat for a Jedi Master.

Master Vodo approached them. Kun wondered himself if he would engage in a fight or just try to convince them to leave this man alone. As a Jedi, he did neither. There's solutions for solving problems by just using a single ability; fooling the mind of the weak ones. Kun expected for Master Vodo to use his Force-imbued staff to provoke the thugs; but he did not.

Vodo used the Force 'placing' his own invented reasons into their minds. Vodo persuaded them and told them to leave. And they were gone.

The man was down laying by a wall. Vodo kneeled and he touched the man's broken shoulders with his own hands.

Master Vodo Siosk-Baas connected himself to the Cosmic Force and let the power of the light side to permeate his physical shelter. Suddenly, the wounded man felt radiations of light side energy which offered pleasure, at the same time, healing his crippled body. That man thanked to Master Vodo and he wished to compensate the Jedi Master with some credits for helping him to fully recover and saving his life from those thugs. But Vodo said, no.

Exar Kun asked Master Vodo why didn't he accept the man's money; after all that man just wanted to return Vodo's favor. Vodo told the child that a Jedi could never accept such an offer; for their order is one that teaches about humbleness and modesty; superficial things had no particular meaning to them.

Witnessing this, Kun was even more eager to learn more about the Jedi ways. He said to Master Vodo he cannot wait to begin his Jedi training.

Master Vodo and Exar Kun were in the front of the Jedi Library. Here, numerous Jedi Knights were training and having sparring matches between each other; testing their strengths or their weaknesses.

Vold told Kun what the bond between a Jedi and his lightsabre means. A lightsabre is more than a simple weapon; it is the extension of a Jedi's mind and heart. A lightsabre could protect other beings or could inflict destruction upon the other ones around them; and even themselves. Kun said his lightsabre will be wielded with great care and he shall not disappoint his tutor. Exar Kun claimed to become the most powerful Jedi Master whoever lived. Master Vodo was astonished by his words and said:

 _Jedi do not crave power, they seek knowledge and harmony with the will of the Force_

 _The power of a Jedi comes from knowledge, not the 'power' of an individual_

The Ossus Library was a massive complex consisting of several buildings erected by the Jedi Order on the planet Ossus. Commissioned by the Jedi Master Odan-Urr following the Great Hyperspace War, the Draethos Jedi assembled ancient documents and scrolls detailing every detail of sentient history and ingenuity. Home to the Order after leaving their homeworld Tython in the Deep Core, the Great Library became a symbol of the Jedi and the great storehouse of knowledge in the galaxy. Over the ensuing centuries Ossus thrived as the home of Jedi wisdom, encouraging visitors from across the Galactic Republic to visit and study at the archives.

Inside the library, Kun saw a huge broken spherical object.

Vodo told him that was the Jedisilium: a 'virtual teacher' that had housed the thoughts and tridimensional apparitions of both himself and Grand Master Odan-Urr. Vodo revealed that a Jedi padawan, in a fit of rage, had set a bomb to blow off the Jedisilum at short time after he fled Ossus.

Much to Exar Kun's fascination, Vodo did not divulge the name, but he did tell Kun that he was a fallen Jedi; and nothing more. Kun swore an oath to the Jedi Master: that the dark side shall never conquer him.

Exar Kun's strength in the Force was tremendous. His mere presence sent ripples through the Force when he and Vodo arrived on this planet. Odan-Urr told them he used the Force to bind his consciousness with the corporeal plane of the planet and has watched them both.

The Grand Master already read Vodo's mind and Kun's when they were in the front of the Jedi Library. He already found out how Vodo met Exar Kun and Vodo's thoughts about him; though the Grand Master did not wish to find more information about him that could lessen Exar Kun's chance to get into the ranks of their order.

Odan-Urr called them in his personal chamber and asked Master Vodo more about Kun; he already knew, but he only wished to see if Exar Kun lies or says the truth. Master Vodo informed the long-lived Draethos that Kun possessed a tremendous strength in the Force for someone of his age. He told the Grand Master that Exar Kun might have been one one of the rare cases of a "Verge in the Force".

Much like Vodo, the Draethos understood that someone of Exar Kun's calibre would be a threat to entire solar systems if he fealls to the dark side and became a Crime Lord, or worse, a Sith. Someone with Kun's Force potency would plunge the galaxy into total darkness if he was ever to be seduced by the promise of power.

Exar Kun had great Force-amplified senses: opponents would hardly take him aback; especially when he had chosen to pursue his dark studies and become a Sith Lord. Exar Kun knew from his late master that he was a "Verge" in the Force. A "Verge" was a direct manifestation of the Force through different types of living sentient creatures. Usually, such a Verge in the Force would appear due to intense conflicts between the forces of light and dark sides on the corporeal or astral plane or if someone would try to exercise their own will over the very fabric of life itself.

Jedi Master Vodo noted in his journal if the Force itself had sent Exar Kun as a result of one or the many conflicts that have existed between the Jedi and Sith orders in the past times.

Vodo had notes with his Jedi padawans' midi-chlorian count: Kun's was the greatest.

Vodo noted in his journal that Exar Kun's midi-chlorian count was two thousand five hundred sixty three. Enormous. No Jedi he had trained had possessed such ridiculous amount of midi-chlorians.

Master Vodo knew that Exar Kun is meant for more. He knew that Exar Kun is brought here for a reason. He is the savior, the anointed one. He would be the one to destroy the dark threat that Master Vodo had seen, in one of his Force visions, during his meditation.

In Vodo's dreams he has seen a diabolical Sith Emperor who would one day return to impose the lost dominance of their very Sith Order; and that a powerful Jedi will defeat him in a battle face to face.

Now Master Vodo knows Exar Kun must be the one.

The Force had sent its selected champion to destroy the forces of darkness and restore balance to galaxy...


End file.
